Month: September 2016

I had the pleasure of painting accents in Immanuel Lutheran School in La Crosse last year (thanks to Tim Parcher!) with no requirements other than a specific budget and to paint something pretty in the girls’ restroom and something unique in the boys’ restroom. I was able to let my creativity blossom by painting large flowers and butterflies for the girls, and 3-d blocks with toys and more for the boys. Here is a peek at just a couple of those walls:

Then about a month ago, Tim commissioned me to come back! He gave me his budget and asked me to add cartoon animals or kids in the hallways and a trompe l’oeil scene at the end of the hallway. He generously put his trust in me to come up with something creative again and didn’t even want to see sketches. That can be a good thing, and a bad thing. Because I tend to be a procrastinator. I remember in High School I had a big paper due and I literally waited until the day before to write it because I couldn’t think of a topic, so I ended up writing about procrastination. My teacher wrote a huge, “F. Now stop procrastinating!” in red ink across the top and underlined several times. Keep in mind, I was a straight A student and had never received an “F” before. Then below that he wrote, “Just kidding, A+.” So actually, that didn’t really do much to deter my procrastination. But I did find it hilarious.

So in this instance, since I didn’t need approval of the sketches, it got pushed aside on my to-do list while I enjoyed summer with my family. I always do sketches for myself anyway, but it is much less urgent if the client doesn’t need to see them. I’ve never painted cartoon animals before, so I spent time researching stylized animals. I personally didn’t want random animals all over the place without a way to tie them all together, so I was a little stuck and a little stressed as time was ticking away and I couldn’t think of a cohesive theme.

Then about one week before painting began, I had an epiphany. Noah’s Ark! Perfect for a private religious school! I could have a male and female of every animal! They could do school things! The trompe l’oeil scene could show the end of the flood! Their eyes could all look the same! How about one more sentence with an exclamation point!

My procrastination paid off as I needed the time to make everything click. However, this may lead to more procrastination on future projects…

So here is what I painted: Two flamingos near the main drinking fountain, standing in water and holding a book (see, a school-related element!) I thought it would be fun to paint only the cartoon animals with black outlines.

On the corner across from the flamingos, I painted two koalas. Since everyone walks past this corner, it is likely it may get scuffed or damaged, so I used that to my advantage. Why not have the koalas paint the tree that they are climbing? (Surrealistic art! Another school-related theme!) Way to go, cutie pies! You’re doing a great job!

Tim asked that I include sports/phy ed elements in the hallway near the gymnasium, so after seeing the trophy cases filled with basketball trophies, I had to include a basketball for this monkey…

…and a jump rope for this one.

Giraffes are always high on the list of awesomeness with kids. At least, I think they are awesome. How could I keep them somewhat true to size? They wouldn’t exactly fit with ceilings that are shy of 8′ so I figured they would fit if they were standing in the basement. Or, below deck, as it were.

You may notice that I didn’t include any school-related item with the giraffes. Right?

Not so fast. I had no idea how they could fit the school theme, until literally two days before painting them. There’s that procrastination again! Check out their spots. See anything?

The female on the left has our earth’s continents, and the male on the right has 22 of our 50 states (see, geography education!)

Now onto the trompe l’oeil scene. I used the existing blocks to lay out my design. The door and trim had been black, so Tim spent a lot of time painting it the same color as the wall for me. (Thank you!) I made sure that the exit sign and other items still had their spots on the wall so they weren’t just “floating” out of place in the mural. The door handle will always cast a shadow due to the overhead lighting, so I had to be careful with that area or it would be very distracting.

Here is the completed mural, with the cartoon dove sitting on the ledge holding an olive branch. The sheep must have heard him because they obviously dropped whatever school-related item they were using and ran down the hallway to check this out.

Here is one more view, from part way down the hallway. I hope the kids enjoy all the animals!

I did fulfill one special request to add a butterfly bush near this drinking fountain. The two butterflies are similar to those I painted in the restroom last year.

Time for me to get going on some sketches for the music room of another private school and a painting on canvas. After a snack. And after checking facebook and playing some slither.io. Maybe I’ll just watch a movie first. Ooh, Inception, one of my favorites!